Theories about the archeological area

The sacred area in the mediorepublican period presents a series of architectonical elements which seem assimilated to the typology of the portico (square surrounded by porches with columns typical of the city of Rome).
Varied studies have identified, from the beginning of the 30's the area sacra with a monument known by the ancient sources, the Porticus Minucia (or Minicia). Filippo Coarelli, in the 60's, has sustained the same thesis.
The informations hand down by the roman writers testify the existence, in the Campo, Marzio, of two complexes called Porticus Minucia the first Porticus Minucia Vetus built by the consul M. Minucio Rufo a record of the victory obtained from the Scordisci (107 a.c.), the second called Porticul Minucia Frumentaria attributed to the emperors Claudius and Domitiano as place for the free distribution of wheat to the roman citizens.
Corelli supposed that the area sacra, in its arrangement at the end of the IInd and beginning of the 1st century a.c. has to be identified with the Porticus Minucia Vetus, while in the large adjacent complex has to be recognized the Frumentario of the imperial period, probably the domitian. On account of its vicinity with the preexistent porch of Minucio Rufo, of which it would constitute a widening, this last one would have taken the name of Minucia, typical of the republican tradition and not easily explanable in a monument of the complete imperial period. However they were not missing the discordant voices, particularly recently Fausto Zevi has called back the attention on a series of news of the sources which show a close topografic connection between the Minucia Frumentaria and the temple of Ercole Custode, which we know, through other means, rose in an other part of the Campo Marzion, in the zone of the actual via Arenula. This one with other signs would render impossible the identification of the quadripartite porch which is erected at the east of the area sacra with the Frumentaria. In it, instead, la Vetus could be recognized in the reconstruction of Domitian after the fire of the 80 d.c. After varied studies, the conclusion was that the four temples of the Largo Argentina, as well as the one of Via delle Botteghe Oscure are identificated among those indicated by the ancient sources, as situated in Campo Marzio. Comparing the literary sources and keeping present the constructive phases and the architectonic typology of the temples of the area, the major part of the scholars have accepted the identification of the rotondo B temple with the one of the Fortuna huiusce diei, founded by Q. Lutazio Catulo after the battle of Vercelli of the 101 a.c. who put an end to the war against the Cimbri.



The temple had a circular form and was adorned with statues from Greece, may be one of the richest of the City.
The construction is of the period immediately successive to the first super elevation of the area with the laying of the tufo pavement (end of II century a.c.), the plan of the temple is circuclar and it is dedicated to a female divinity as it has been proved by the acrolite which was found.
Besides it presents two rectangular bases at the sides of the stairs, probably pedestals for the groups of statues which decorated it. For the temple C, the proposed identification by the Castagnoli and accepted by the majority of the archeologists is the one of Feronia, italian rural divinity ; its cult originated from Sabina has been introduced in Rome after the conquest of this territory by M. Curio Dentato in 290 a.c.
The dedication to an agricultural divinity would be confirmed also by the finding of an antefix, now lost, with a feminin head crowned with flowers and fruits, covered with a goat skin. More controverted is the identification of the divinity to which was dedicated the temple D. The scholars who recognize, in the area sacra, the Porticus Minucia Vetus identify it with the temple of the Lari Permarini. Other scholars instead ascribe this denomination to the temple of via delle Botteghe Oscure identifying then as Porticus Minucia Vetus, and not as Frumentaria, the large porticus which rises on the East of the area sacra. This temple was voted by the praetor M. Emilio Regillo, in the course of a naval battle against the fleet of Antiocus III in the 190 a.c. and dedicated by the censor M. Emilio Lepido in 179 a.c.
Recently Fausto Zevi has proposed for the temple D an identification with the temple of the Nymphs which erected in the Villa Publica, and in which there were preserved the lists for the distribution of the frumentum publicum (public Maize) in the laterepublican age. As for the A temple , two identifications were proposed : the one of Iuno Curritis (With this epithet Giunone was venerated at Falerii, city of the meridional Etruria) built probably after the victory over Falerii, in 241, and the one of Giuturna. Identification, this last one, proposed by Coarelli on the basis of a passage of Ovidius, infact the sole temple of the republican age which is well adapted to the text of Ovidius, it is the temple A of Largo Argentiana, founded by a Lutazio Catulo, surely the consul of the 242 a.c., after the triumph on the Carthagenians.
The same scholar hypothesizes also that the edifice erected, starting from the republican age, in the spaces between the temples, be the Statio aquarium, the office for the administration of the water of Rome.
In the constantine era the (Statio aquarum) office for the administration of water can be localized with certitude, in the vicinity of the Lacus Juturnae of the Foro Romano, but it has been hypothesized that it has been transferred only in the late ancient period. The only sanctuary of Giuturna, to us known, besides the one of the Foro Romano, it is the temple in the Campo Marzio near which then had to be the office of the administration of the water before the transference, in the constantine period, into the Foro Romano.
The temple A is being considerably amplified and transformed in an epoch (the third quarter of the 1st century a.c.) which would coincide chronologically with reshuffle of the service of the water due to Agrippa altogether with the construction of the thermae in the Campo Marzio and of the acqueduct Vergine. In the era of Settimio Severo, the edifice among the temples was completely restored and right in this epoch, took place a new restructuration of the services of the waters and of the distributions of the cereals ; now on, such services were unified as it results from the administrative office curator aquarum and Minuciae, that is in charge of the office of the waters and of the one of the free distribution of the wheat, the distributions liberally given in the contiguous Porticus Minucia Frumentaria.

Demolitions of ancient remains

The demolitions of the quarter included between the streets of the Teatro Argentina and the Corso Vittorio which happened in the year between 1926 and the '29, brought back to light one of the more precious remains of the Roma Republic : a large pave square in which are included four temples. Previously to the excavations there were visible traces of this archeological complex in the Church of Saint Nicolas dei Cesarini and in the attached courtyard.
The works initiated in the '26 for the construction of a new block which was to rise on via Torre Argentina showed unhoped for findings and very interesting. In the '27, was started the leveling of all the zone, sospending the foreseen construction.
As soon as came to light the remains of all the ignored subterranean temples, then was started the recovery and the exploitation of all the area which became by that time of preeminent archeological interest.

The area was inaugurated on 21st of April 1929 by the chief of government Benito Mussolini and from now on its lay-out has not undergone modification of relief. Is is to be noted that the "Argentina" denomination, by which is known the archeological area, derives from Argentoratum, the actual Strasburg, native country of Giovanni Burkardo, master of ceremonies of Alessandro VI Borgia, called also Argentino bishop: this one called Argentina the tower included in his palace of via del Sudario in proximity of the area sacra.